"Tax Time----oh my"



 How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.  ~Anne Frank

April 15
Tax Time
None of us look forward to it, do we?
I know I don't.
Since I'm not the organized type,
I usually spend a couple of hours sorting through the cabinet where I throw stuff throughout the year.  Mike, my husband and I usually take turns being the "one" who has to take the taxes and get them completed.  A couple of years ago, we discovered a wonderful service that is provided by the public library where we live (yes they even let us chronic library abusers use the service.) AARP folks come together and provide a free place to get your taxes completed.  It is first come.  First Serve. Absolutely Free!

We've had our taxes done here on several occasions and let me tell you one thing--they do an outstanding job.  For certain hours during the week, retired volunteers come together in their blue denim button downs (with the AAPR emblem in red).  They set up, have folks line up and they sort paper, plug numbers, look things up in books and double check each other.
The cost for anyone willing to stand in line to have them done is absolutely nothing.  I mean it sure beats the $400.00 H&R charged us a few years ago and certainly beats the cost of the private CPA we used for several years. 
So as I stated...this year was my year to go stand in line. 
I got up, showered, had my coffee and piled my stuff in a bag.
I did discover this morning in my gathering that I couldn't find my social security card--I've had card since I was six---now I can't find it.  What happens to our brains when we get older--I certainly don't know but for the life of me, I couldn't find mine this morning--and I'm still obsessing about where I stuck it to keep it safe.  I hate early onset dementia!!!

When I arrived there was already five or six folks in front of me.  Some of them were older folks, one with a walker and one with a cane.  One of the AARP folks brought out a chair into the lobby for them to sit on which I thought was very nice.
We stood in line waiting for Susan--who was running late--to arrive with the computers....seems her cat was sick and she had to take it to the vet.
Once she arrived all the folks carried in the stuff, set up and then Melinda greeted us and told us to please be orderly because she didn't want to be the AAPR library group to make the front page of the newspaper due to crowd disruptions.

Then, we were invited into a room.  Everyone was nice and kind and we chatted with one another.  I did see you---Mr. Man, kinda big, in your tight gray sweats!!!!! graying beard----I saw you cut line in front of those two ladies who'd been waiting for such a long time---saw you cut line in front of everyone and sign in as number two in line---I must confess,
I thought some very bad things about you today----I thought your mother certainly wouldn't be proud.  I tried to let it go, but at some point in your life....I hope you learn a few manners and learn to empathize with others. The girl standing next to me---the one who spilled her Cherry 7-up all over the place--she and I talked badly about you.  So maybe you had a reason to cut in front, a reason to not let your elders go first....but oh well....now that I've confessed my resentment at you...I'm going to let your ill manners go.

Once we were in, Melinda checked our forms, organized our papers and we waited for our turn.  It didn't take long to get seated with a preparer.  The preparer I got to work with was a tall lanky guy wearing glasses.  I think he must have been a retired engineer--civil I think because he had a brief case sitting next to him that said that on it--course he could have been like my father-in-law and bought it for a quarter at his neighbors yard sale. 
His name was John B.

As he started sorting, I looked at him and said, "I know you are all volunteers here, so I'm just curious, what do you get out of this?"
He kind of shrugged and said, "well my wife likes to get me out of the house."  I said, "no really, what makes you do this kind of work for free." 

He seemed somewhat reserved in his answer and said, "well it might sound philosophical, but I simply do it because of the satisfaction I get from helping my fellow [man]."
I said, "I wish we all would serve the world that way."

As I sat there and John b. sorted, I began to reflect upon how often i offered my services just for the satisfaction of helping my neighbor."

I like to think that I do this often.  I do have a big heart and lots of empathy but I also know that the environment that I worked in for the past few years has tainted my empathetic nature.   People have walked on my heart, they've abused my caring nature and because of this, I find that there are often more cases than not that I question whether I should risk helping someone for fear of getting hurt or used or abused.

for the satisfaction of helping my fellow [man]....
John B. finished my taxes and yes we got back instead of having to pay....
which is very nice!
but perhaps the most important teaching of the the day
were the simple words that John b. gave me....

satisfaction of helping my fellow humans....
perhaps, just perhaps,
tomorrow
I will open my heart a bit more,
move when the Spirit whispers,
let down some of my boundaries and
step out into what I really believe just a bit more...

We are all connected here.....people all trying to find our way,
running into each other, walking on each other, using each other...
I wonder..just wonder what would happen if
all of us
became John B.  for just a few minutes each day....
I'll try it if you will....
"there are days, I can't get no satisfaction"
perhaps he taught me how.

Thank you John B. for your dedication,
your service and
your sharing of a bit of wise wisdom.
May you go to bed tonight
fully satisfied
because of the goodness you offered the world today.

Thank you...
Thank you..
Thank you...


and since I'm not starting this today,
I hope gray sweat pant man's preparer missed a decimal point on his.